Born in Prague, capital
of then Czechoslovakia, my mother tongue is Czech; German I learned early
in my life; later on I learned Danish since I came to Denmark in 1939 at
the age of 15. English I had to learn in my forties because of a new employment.
Being retired now, I try to make some of the most interesting papers, which
I have collected during many years, comprehensible for readers who don't
originate from the cultural circle of Central Europe. I do it thinking
back to honour the memory of my grandfather Adolf,
my father Quido and of Uncle Hugo
and also forward, as I suppose that future readers may appreciate that
these writings have been typed and translated from German to English and
Danish. This is the English copy. Uncle Hugo B., cousin of
my father, professor of philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem
and its first president, corresponded with me from 1945 to the end of his
life in 1975. Thanks to his foresight and fond interest, I have received
from him numerous papers valuable for the Bergmann family.

Autobiographical note by professor
dr. Hugo Bergmann, Jerusalem, published in HADOAR, New York, October 17,
1969.

These reflections
were published as the introduction to the collection of articles "Thousand
Years of Czech Jewry" edited by "GESHER", organ of the Jewish World Congress.

...We are
celebrating the thousand years' jubilee of the remains of a Jewish community,
just at the moment of its disintegration and scattering in the whole world.
It is a peculiar jubilee, according to my opinion just because the Czech
Jewry had such a paradoxical existence and we, the last generation which
remembers this existence, are obliged to tell about it to the coming generations…

When I was
young - I was born in 1883 - the Czech Jewry had a spiritual structure
that today seems very curious to me when I, in retrospect, compare it with
Jewish communities in other countries. We knew Jewishness without orthodoxy
in today's sense. The only family in Prague who was really faithful to
the law seemed to us like a relic from the museum. It is remarkable that
this family was not militant and made no efforts to promote their kind
of Jewishness. The community had no religious fights at all. Only with
the rise of Zionism did this change. Consequently, ideological discussions
did not take place at the time. And yet we had a pronounced Jewish consciousness
even though the Jewish part of the population in Bohemia was small.

I myself came to
a positive Jewish attitude, in fact to a real love for Judaism, in a small
Czech village in which only two Jewish families lived. Indeed, this is
entirely my own personal experience and still it seems me to be typical
for the conditions in our area. For this reason I would like to tell about
it here.

My parents
lived in Prague at that time in what from the outside appeared as a stately
Jewish community. My late mother was born in 1855 in Príbram, my
late father in 1854 in the village Chraštice, about three hours on foot
from Príbram.

The religious
life in Prague was miserable, as is known from Kafka's writings. My father
had, in any case, still brought with him some Jewish knowledge from the
village. The little he knew about Judaism he cared for and loved, and he
knew also to hand over this knowledge to both of his sons. Yet, he had
no pedagogical method, it was simply like the air we breathed.

My mother,
Johanna née Fischer, learned when she was young to read only in
the prayer book. In addition, she knew how to write the Hebrew letters
and knew the customary minhagim. We especially
felt to be Jews on the High holidays when Papa, wearing a festive silk
hat, went with us to the Pinkas synagogue - also on Erev Pesach, when Mama
took out the special Pesach dishes and Papa went to shul to participate
in a "seudat mitzva" by which he freed himself from the obligation of fasting
which lay on him until his first-born son was bar-mitzvah. We didn't have
a sukka, but on Simchat Torah we went to the synagogue with small flags.
On weekdays we occasionally had even ham for dinner. When we children were
small, at Christmas we even had a Christmas tree and on December 6th we
hung leather top boots in the window so that Santa Claus could reward us
with nuts and raisins; indeed he regularly fulfilled our desire. We knew
nothing about Purim, and the Chanukka festival was, if I am not mistaken,
first celebrated with the rise of Zionism that brought an altogether great
change. In spite of this mess, Papa sent us in the afternoon after school
to the religion class of the community where we learned Chumash and Haftarah.

From what
I already told, it becomes clear how weak the Jewish life was in Prague.
The real source of Judaism was revealed to us in the summertime in the
village. Usually we spent the first part of our vacation in Príbram
with our grandparents. It was a medium-sized community that even had a
temple. According to my memory the life of the Jews there was hardly different
from that of the Jews in Prague, although my grandfather Abraham Fischer
(born 1811) would certainly not allow pork to be eaten in his house.

An essential difference
was the language. In Prague people talked German. In smaller places like
Príbram, where the Jews were more in contact with Czech neighbours,
the everyday language was Czech.

However, when we
came from Príbram to Chraštice where our father was born, suddenly
the whole Jewish atmosphere was different. And when I look back, it was
the most peculiar phenomenon, as there were only two Jewish families in
this Czech village. On top of this the two families were business competitors
and therefore always "broges". (Ed. Note – this most likely means “angry;
non-talkative.”) Yet it was just here in my uncle's house where I could
directly grasp the tight Jewish atmosphere with my hands. However this
couldn't be defined as piety in present terms. The best way it can be shown
is by giving examples of what made such a big impression on us.

The Jewish
population of the villages was extremely small. Sometimes only a single
family lived in a village. Chraštice had a church and market place and
had two Jewish families: My uncle Karl Bergmann (born abt. 1850) and the
Platovský family, who were somehow relatives of Franz Kafka. And,
like the farmers of the surroundings who flocked in great numbers to the
Catholic church, likewise the Jews from the neighbouring villages went
to their shul on Shabbat and holidays. This was indeed not a magnificent
temple, but a two-room-farmhouse without furniture and treasures. It was
situated in the neighbouring (t.a. to Chraštice) village of Zbenice).

There the minyan
assembled on Shabbat, perhaps twelve or thirteen men. And prior to praying,
before the number of ten was reached, they had a chat in German, with a
sprinkling of interwoven Jewish idioms, about family affairs, illnesses
and everyday worries. Sometimes one who had just returned from Prague reported
about events in the big world, but first and foremost about the grain prices
on the exchange, as all these Jews were half-farmers, half-tradesmen.
When the minyan was assembled they began to pray. There was no official
chasan and indeed no rabbi.

The walk from
Chraštice to the shul took one hour. The nights before Rosh Hashanah made
a great impression upon us when we, each one of us equipped with a lantern,
hurried through the fields in order to be in time for the "selichot".

My uncle had
a big family - 12 children. They didn't go to the Czech school in the village.
Rather, they wandered every day one hour to Zaluzany where the Jews maintained
their own school. The educational language was German and the children
received a certain degree of Jewish knowledge as a reward for the daily
long walk.

This way of
living and the strong Jewish awareness made an extremely great impression
on us Praguers, especially the Shabbats. I see the Friday afternoons quite
clearly before me, when the whole crowd of children prepared themselves
for the Shabbat. The shoes were waxed and everyone washed with warm water
in the yard, as the establishment of bathrooms at that time was still unknown.
Then they dressed in their Shabbat clothes and assembled in the house at
Auntie's table. Kiddush was observed, but it seems to me that there was
no Havdalah on Mozeh Shabbat. On the mornings of Shabbat we walked the
described way to shul. Uncle gathered the whole crowd of children in the
afternoon and read Pirke Avot with them - without translation, without
comments, just the Hebrew text.

I must add
that Uncle was also a shochet. When a cow had to be shaechted, he was called
by the Christian butcher, because the village Jews observed strictly the
kashrut. Usually the slaughtering took place on Thursday so as to have
the meat which the Jews could buy for Shabbat. My uncle received as a reward
the liver from the shaechted cow, and still the delicious odour of the
fried liver is in my nose, when I think back on those Friday nights. However,
"gefilte fish" was unknown there.

This Shabbat
in the village had considerably more Jewish content than a Shabbat in the
modern Jerusalem. And I would like to emphasize that these villages and
these Jews were not exceptions. There was
not a single strong personality that guided the life of the Jews. Unfortunately
I don't know the stories of the Czech writer Rakous, though I suppose that
his Jewish types of people are of the same kind as those whom I tried to
describe here.

Your
congratulation on fulfilling my 60th year of life, thereby 61st anniversary
came indeed postfestum, but it made me very pleased as I know that you
have classified your time quite precisely. I have not arrived to Buber,
because I can't bear difficult things. Otherwise I am fit spiritually and
physically, but I can't contemplate anymore. I am a reader of newspapers
and would like to read your newspaper articles as well as Böhm's work.
Perhaps you can send it to me by printed-matter mail. I notice in me, that
the more intensive spiritual work strains me very much and therefore I
read only easy things. The head and the stomach want good food.

With
regard to the Zionism I have written years ago to Dr. Farbstein in Zürich,
that Z. can only be Palestinism and whoever is supporting our goal and
with which motives he feels called upon, national, religious or human,
is unimportant to us. Therefore we see a banalising in the Z. We just forget
Herzl's correct expression that we will be healthy as soon as the plough
will be in our hands. Instead of high-schools, colleges etc. we need farmers
and I am more fond of one Yemenite than of 10 high-school boys.

Also the struggle
between the national and religious movements is healthy and it will last
until the religious-national is unified in one entity. You can imagine
that I am sorry for having neglected Hebrew andso that I cannot read your work
in Hashiloah. I congratulate you on your promotion and send my regards
to you

Answering
your card I inform you that I wouldn't dream of getting reports from you
as I know that you have enough to do.

I will be
looking for Grünwald's paper, but I know that I will not find anything.
Zbenice belonged namely to the district of Kourím, Písek
to that of Prachatice. The district rabbi of the district of Kourím
was in Breznice. The late father sent me to that place with 1 sheile2.
The late father was very intelligent. He mastered perfectly both of the
country's languages (t.a. Czech and German) & was good in Hebrew. At
Ledecký he often read out of the Beseda Lidu (t.a. a Czech paper)
and for us from Sipurim in German. As he noticed a nail in the stomach
of a cow, he looked into the Talmud for Hilchi's Shechita3,
& I had to walk to Breznice to the rabbi with 1 letter from father
& the stomach.

As regards
the family, so Adam B. was a randar4 in Zbenice,
a hereditary tenant of the slaughterhouse & fields
near Cunák5. The rent he paid to
the Baron of Zbenice, whose successor has got the
Placka6 on the cemetery in Chraštice.
Adam Zbenice received the name B, his brother in Prague the name Schalek
& is the progenitor of the booksellers Schalek. His son Alexander is
my grandfather. A sister of him was married to the 1.Kacif (butcher) in
Zocolovo near Milevsko. My father was with her as a journeyman, as the
traveling was prescribed because of the certificate of capability.

Alex
B was married 2 times. From the first marriage originated Salomon B in
Karlín-Hrdlorezy & his sister in Kovárov. From the 2nd
marriage came Adam, Moses (Kovárov) & Franziska Freund (Karlín).

Adam received
the house in Zbenice. He had 8 children Anna, Karl, Anastasie, Alex, Adolf,
Sigmund, Wilhelm, Karolin.

Moses B is
the father of Dr. Adam B., who is now first army medical officer in Mies
(Stríbro).

Franziska
is the mother of Olgr7Alex
Freund in Budejovice, whose children are Zionists. I don't know anymore.

My nephew
Viktor Epstein from Vienna travels to Palestine as a chalutz. His mother
is a sister of my wife. He is going on 3/10. I have advised him not to
travel now. We are in good health.

With greetings and
kiss to all
Uncle Adolf__________________________________________________________________
t.a. (translator's annotations)

________________________________________________________________[3] Part of Johanna Bergmann's (mother of
Artur and Hugo) memoirs:

From mother's diary - January 4, 1930

My dear little
Hugo, I will comply with your wish to write down something from my early
years, it is difficult for me, but you will forgive me, if the style will
not be all right.

My good, unforgettable
father was born in Obcov1,
one hour from Príbram. His parents, whom I didn't know, were very
decent people, they made a living like all Jews. Grandfather went with
the merchandise from house to house, grandmother was born Guttmann of a
good family, a very clever woman, who was sought after by the richest families
as a nurse, not for profit making, but because of love of mankind. She
had 3 sons and 3 daughters. One son was a teacher; he is buried in Príbram.
Later he also became a tradesman; his wife, Aunt Baby2,
is still alive, 95 years old. The second son Gottlieb was father of Semi
Fischer, who taught you maftir3.
A grandchild is Ernst Lustig, whom you also know, and he became a German.
Further are the Klausner, Erwin and Artur, from a sister of our good father.
Two sisters died childless.

My dear mother,
born Bloch, originates from Zdár near Blovice4,
and in this birthplace we twice spent lovely holidays! Grandmother originated
from a family Janowitz, who were very noble people. They made a foundation
and every year at Pesach a distribution was made and our good mother also
got a part of it, which Rosa later received. One of her brothers was uncle
Bernhard, whom you remember; a sister was married to Behal. Her grandchildren
were Ju.Dr. Richard and Karl Behal, whom you remember and a daughter who
was very small (za groš pes)5.

Father's family tree
you have from uncle Adolf6 , but I have to
write down what I know. Grandfather was the son of a randar7,
which means that he had free admittance to the landowners. They consulted
him in all business affairs. He had a distillery, which was a distinction
for Jews.Grandmother, born Freimuth was
only from narrow circumstances, from that originates the saying: "Geive
from Zbenitz, dalles from Petschitz"8. Pappi9
always said this because grandfather was from Zbenice (randar) and grandmother
only was a daughter of a trade-Jew. I shall also write to you the names
of their children: Anna, married Fleischmann - Kozárovice10;
Alex, who lived in America and also died there; Karl; Adolf; Stasa Klümpl,
(t.a. Klimpl!), also buried in America; Siegmund, our dear Pappi; Karoline
Fuhrer, the only one who is still alive; Wilhelm who lived in Vienna and
is buried there.

My father
very often walked to Príbram with his merchandise. He carried on
his back a so-called "Almarka"11,
in which the merchandise was arranged. He always had to take out a bulete
(leave certificate) in order to be allowed to sell from door to door. The
citizens liked him and in the year 1849 he got permission to move to Príbram.
With reference to this, the customs for vehicles was arranged by leasing
it to him. He was the first Jew to be a duty collector. He lived three
years alone with his brother Josef and his mother. When she died, he married
in the year 1854. I came as the first child 1855. Thereafter every second
year afterwards came, namely Sofie, who died in the year 1878, Pepie Schwarzbarth,
Rosa, Siegmund, Julius, who died as the 5th youngest child, David, Simon,
Marie, and the youngest who is Rudolf. When I was 5 years old, there were
already some families settled. They also had children at school age, so
they looked for a teacher and found one. They didn't ask whether he knew
something if only he was a bocherle12.
A room was found and the school was opened. The good father often carried
me there on his back, it was in the Long street "U koníckù13".
Urbach, the teacher, nevertheless brought us so far that we could read.
We were then admitted to the third class of the Bohemian (t.a.: Czech)
school. We went to Urbach to learn religion, chumish14.
I have learned to write Hebrew, but not for long, Hebrew is not modern
people said, so Urbach stopped teaching it.

Two hours
a week we also learned Hebrew and German. It was customary to go to school
until age 13. I then went to a sewing school and also took German lessons
with a professor who taught me in the Czech school. Naturally I was taken
right away to the housekeeping, since we - as I already mentioned - got
a child every second year, so that it brought the number up to 9. I was
the eldest and I helped the good parents as much as I could.

In the year 186615
the war broke out, and it was bad times. Business-wise we had enough to
do, as my father supplied the army. Lots of oats, straw and hay were
supplied, so benefits were also there, but the worries were indescribable.
A cholera epidemic broke out and in every house many people died every
day. The dear God protected us, the good mother sacrificed day and night
in order to do everything what the doctor had instructed, so that everything
went well.

The same year a
terrible thing also happened to the Jews. In Príbram there were
silver works, and many hundred miners worked there. In the melting house
in which the silver was melted out, the workers stole it, Jews bought it,
and allegedly Christians bought it too. These were allowed to run away
but the Jews were persecuted terribly. A very distinguished man by the
name of Feigel was caught in Prague as he was selling and he drowned himself
right away in the Berounka when he was driving home. He wanted to escape
the shame and left his wife and 3 small children here. A few Jews were
imprisoned for 3 to 6 years.This created a revolution in
Príbram, people smashed in the windows of all Jews and demolished
everything they could, dirtied the houses, etc. Nothing happened to my
good parents at all. The people knew that my father was a honest man.

Despite all of that
the temple was in our house; father rented a two-story house and we lived
on the ground floor. Father gave the first floor the first year free of
charge. (Ed. Note – many Europeans refer to the bottom floor as the “ground”
floor, thus the top floor of a two-story house is referred to as the “first”
floor.) Four rooms were made to two, men to one side, women to the other.
It became a very cozy shul16.
And the people were so nice towards us.

For remembrance
father entered it in his ledger and warned his children and grandchildren
against buying dishonest things, to make honest living, because the honest Kreuzer17
is bitter to earn, but sweet to enjoy. This proverb I have taken to heart
and also stamped it upon my dear children.

So my childhood
years went in fear and anxiety. I got so serious, and helped the parents
where I was able. I took care of all these many children; when my youngest
brother was born I was 19 years old. I already then knew my good Siegmund,
he was in Pereles' shop. Neither my parents nor his were very happy about
it.

I longed to leave
home, to make an end to everything and also to learn to know the world.
I discovered that a friend of my parents lived in Vienna and I went there.
I wrote to her whether she would receive me and procure a job for me as
a nurse. She answered me to come right away. So, after the barmitzvah of
my eldest brother on the 20.July 1875, I departed to Vienna. Rudolf was
10 weeks old. My dear father accompanied me on the stagecoach. At that
time the railway to Prague didn't yet exist. From Prague I went over Brno
to Vienna where the friend expected me. It was in the evening when I saw
Vienna and I was so surprised that I felt fear and anxiety.

Soon, on the 4.August
I got a job with very good, nice Jews. The people were very rich. They
had a house in the Rotensterngasse and a villa in Ober St. Veith, where
I went right away together with the lady and stayed there until September.
I had to look after two girls; one who was 17 and the other 15 years old,
and two small boys. Besides these there were another 6 sons, most of them
were already employed. One of them was studying. That was Dr. Heinrich
Stöger who recently died. I have often examined him and he was a nice
man.

Altogether, everybody
was so good to me and I was like their own child in the house. I was with
them for 14 months. Then I went to the sister of the lady and was there
for some time also with children. I very much longed for my dear parents,
brothers and sisters and went home on a leave.

During all that
time I have corresponded with my dear Siegmund. Then his father died and
he was taken home to help his mother. He had to obligate himself to take
care of his sister Karolin, so there was no hope that we could marry each
other. When I came home - it was in 1878 - he visited me and then it became
serious with us and love gained victory.

The good man
promised me and my parents to marry me. In the beginning we thought that
he would establish himself in Príbram, since he was very popular
with the people. The main thing, the money, was not there and he decided
to stay in his job and in the year 1880, on August 4, we married each other.
He found a little flat, two rooms and kitchen in the Heinrichgasse18,
where we moved in on August 6. Nobody was happier than the two of us that
we had a home. We lived simple and cosy. In the first year of our marriage
I often went to my dear parents when my dear Mundícek19
was traveling. Hereby we could save his wages, which was 80 guilders a
month.

On June 13, 1881,
our dear Ata20 was
born, an upright healthy boy and the whole family was very pleased. Then
we had to take a larger flat. First then we could make both ends meet and
things went quite well for us. In order to contribute something to the
household I took my brother Siegmund and also my brother-in-law Adolf21
into the flat. The latter got later a job as a draftsman in Votice22.
So it all went quite well. The little child thrived and was spoiled by
Pappi, since he permitted him to do everything. After 2½ year our
dear little Hugo came to the world, a Christmas child, on December 25,
1884 (t.a. 1883!), a modest little boy from the moment he was born. So
we lived happily, content, we had no abundance, but it was enough for us.
In this way the years passed until the dear children went to school. They
did well in school, especially dear Hugo was always a top-grade boy and
so it went with God's help until a doctor's degree was conferred on them
- Hugo in philosophy, Ata in law. Both served as one-year-volunteers23.

Dear Hugo married
when he was 24 years old, shortly thereafter the hardest fate hit us. Our
dear, unforgettable Pappi was suddenly carried off, through a railway disaster.
Our pain was indescribable. I became alone, my dear children were very
nice to me, I had to pull all my force together in order to help them to
bear the great pain.

Soon thereafter
Ata also married. My first grandchild was Lotte24,
she was born on Nov. 17, 1912; the second grandchild, little Martin, now
called Shlomo, on Feb. 15, 1913. As both developed very well, I was delighted
and then I gave in to the fate.

Many years passed
by. In the year 1914 came the war where both my darlings had to go to the
army, and to describe that I lack the strength. The 5 years were the most horrible25
one can think of. The dear God held his hand over my dear children and
they came back, to my greatest luck and joy. Ata got wounded on the right
hand, dear Hugo so far in good health.__________________________________________________________________
t.a.1.
Obcov: NE of Príbram. (return)2.
Baby: related to Czech: old woman, grandmother. (return)3.
Maftir: Prophet's passage red by bar-mitzvah boys in Bohemia.
(return)4.
Zdár: SE of Blovice, which is SE of Plzen (Pilsen).
(return)5.
Za groš pes (Czech): "Dog for a dime." (return)6.
Uncle Adolf: My grandfather Adolf B. wrote in 1920 what he knew about the
family [2]. (return)7.
Randar: Abbreviation of ARENDAR, authorized tenant of a distillery.
(return)8.
Geive from Zbenitz, dalles from Petschitz: Pride from Zbenice (the village
of Bergmanns), poverty from Pecice (Freimuths). Zbenice and Pecice,
neighbouring villages SE of Príbram. (return)9.
Pappi: Sigmund B., father of Arthur and Hugo. (return)10.
Kozárovice: SE of Zbenice. (return)11.
Almarka (Czech): A small cupboard (closet). (return)12.
Bocherle: From Hebrew: Bachur, a young man - a scholar.
(return)13.
U koníckù (Czech): "At the small horses" (the houses had
no numbers but signs). (return)14.
Chumisch: From chamesh (Hebrew): Five. The Pentateuch (return)15.
The war between Austria and Prussia.- (return)16.
shul: Synagogue. (return)17.
Kreuzer: A small Austrian coin. (return)18.
Jindrišská Street in Prague, across Václavské Square
in the centre of the town. (return)19.
Mundícek: Pet name for Sigmund: Little S. (return)20.
Ata: Pet name for Arthur B. (return)21.
Brother-in-law Adolf: My grandfather from Chraštice lived there while he
studied law. Later also my father Quido from Pardubice during his apprenticeship
and study at a trade school. (return)22.
Votice, a town between Benešov and Tábor. In the middle of the eighties,
my grandfather got married and established himself as a lawyer in Pardubice.
(return)23.
In Austria academics could do their military service in one year if they
reported voluntarily for duty. (return)24.
Lotte lives now in Hamilton, Canada, over 81 years old. (return)25.
Johanna was lucky not to have to experience W.W. II. (return)

__________________________________________________________________[4] Of an obituary for Arthur Bergmann at
the occasion of "Shloshim" (30 days after his death) edited by the Old
gentlemen-Union of the Students Union Bar Kochba.

A.B. was born on
June 13, 1881, in Prague. The parents originated from Bohemian villages
and small towns, his father from Chraštice.

It was the first
generation that settled in a large city. The root of the family was still
the village and the Jewish life there, and this fact was of great significance
for the formation of character of the children born and brought up in Prague.
For instance Franz Kafka saw almost nothing more of the living Judaism
in his parent's home and first learned Judaism to know as a grown man through
an Eastern-Jewish group of actors, which the fate had brought to Prague.
On the contrary to this, A.B. belonged to a family that still lived with
much of the Jewish tradition through its intimate relation to the village.

The grandfather
of A.B., on his mother's side, Abraham Fischer, was the first Jew who received
the permission to settle in the small mining town Príbram, and he
was very proud of it. In the house in which he lived in Príbram,
he at the same time established a synagogue for the few Jews, who after
him got the permission to live there. The grandfather on his father's
side lived as a butcher in the village. He died before Arthur was born.
He was a rare phenomenon among the Czech Jews of his time, since he knew
Hebrew well and gave a good Jewish education to his 8 children. Jewish
life was still very intensive in the village, in spite of that in one single
village lived not more than 1-2 Jewish families1.

The mother
of A.B. spent her holidays every year in the small village Chraštice near
Príbram and it was here where her children got their Jewish impulses.
Jews from the neighbouring villages came every Shabbat together for a service
in a farmhouse in Zbenice. Just because the Jewish tradition was concentrated
on this single Shabbat, it was very intensive and left deep marks in the
mind of the boys. Still in the last days of his life A.B. liked often to
speak of what he learned of Jewish consciousness and knowledge from his
uncle Karl in the village, where he spent his holidays every year.

Another uncle
on his father's side was Dr. Adolf B., lawyer in the Bohemian town Pardubice.
He already belonged to the Zionist movement under Herzl. Herzl's paper
"Welt" contains in the volumes 1900 and 1902 papers of Dr. Adolf Bergmann.
Notable is the paper from the year 1902, in which Adolf B. gives advice
to the Zionist members of the communities, how they can carry out Zionist
activities in the communities, within the scope of the law. Adolf B. gives
under the title "The Austrian religious community and Zionism" these advices
as a lawyer by means of the official statutes for the religious communities
in Austria.

In the spring
1899 Zionism entered Prague, often fought against by both the German and
the Czech assimilants. In the large assembly, which was broken up by the
Socialists, the entire Bergmann family took part, and this assembly decided
its Zionist future. The parents of Arthur vividly took part in both of
the Zionist Organizations that were founded, the "Jewish Popular Association"
and the "Jewish Women's Association". In the Zionist archive in Jerusalem
are documents, according to which both father and mother of Arthur B. were
in March 1901 nominated by both associations as delegates for the first
Austrian meeting of delegates in Olomouc.

Since that
assembly in April 1899, A.B. was a Zionist. He was then still a middle
school pupil; he finished his gymnasium (high-school) study in the summer
of 1900. And it was obvious that he became a member of the student's association
"Bar Kochba", in the fall 1900 when he became a student of the faculty
of law in Prague. At that time Bar Kochba was just about to come into being.
Before that existed the "Association of Jewish University Students", which
was not yet called Bar Kochba and which was a socializing-and-amusement
association. It had a rather modest existence in the shadow of the German
unions, to which the Jewish students of the German University to a large
part still belonged. At the general assembly of this association on June
9, 1899, 8 members were present in total. It was decided to dissolve the
association at the start of the winter term. All this changed under the
influence of Zionism, which penetrated from Vienna to Prague.

On the November
18, 1899 the motion was accepted to convert the association into a Jewish-national
and on December 5, 1899, the name "Bar Kochba" was given to the association.
It had now to admit also students of the Czech university.

Arthur's importance
for the young Bar Kochba lay above all in the field of fellowship. Through
his good knowledge of Czech he made up a bridge to the Czech - Jewish students,
who now joined Bar Kochba. Arthur was the organizer of the different parties
of the association, the purpose of which was both to bring the national
Jewish idea among the Jews, and to give the young association a social
and financial basis.

After finishing
his law study Arthur became a railway official in different places in Bohemia.
He actively took part in the Zionist life of the province. After the outbreak
of war 1914 he went in the field as a reserve officer and was soon heavily
wounded. He received 1916 for brave conduct in the face of the enemy the
"signum laudis". The honour made him very happy because the Zionist students
endeavoured to glorify the name of Jewry through brave conduct in the face
of the enemy, and in this way to make up for the manifold shame brought
to the name of Jewry by Jewish black-marketeers in the country.

After his
wounds have healed Arthur was assigned the task to work in the field railway
service. In this position he founded in Undine in North Italy a Zionist
center for Zionist soldiers, who passed through there. After a short transitional
period in Vienna on behalf of the new Czechoslovak railway, Arthur went
back to his family in Prague and placed himself fully and entirely to the
disposal of Zionist work. In the year 1921, shortly after the foundation
of Keren Hayessod, he took charge over the csl. K.H., and continued until
his aliyah in August 1939. First as spare-time occupation in the afternoon
and evening hours on the side of his work in Government service. In 1933
he retired as a higher Government official and devoted himself wholly to
the K.H. work. Until his aliyah he took most vividly part in all Zionist
tasks.

The spirit
and atmosphere in the house of the parents, the hospitality of which many
people knew and enjoyed, and the spiritual environment of the city Prague
with its manifold of national cultures, this old cradle of Jewish knowledge
and Jewish science, led Arthur already in his earliest youth to Zionism,
towards which he stayed faithful until the end of his life. He served with
faithfulness his people and his country. The csl. K.H. was indebted for
its advance in the years between the two World Wars to his many-sided knowledge,
his clear judgment, his special intuition in the not so easy activity,
his thorough knowledge of people and substance, and last but not least
his talent and charm in intercourse with people. A.B. granted the best
years of his life to this institution as well as the rich gifts of his
clear intellect.

But his heart,
his love, Arthur gave to the Bar Kochba. He was one of the founders of
this fellowship, the endeavours and goals of which he identified himself
fully and wholly through his entire lifetime.

Arthur was
the Bar-Kochbaner par excellence. The B.K. was his extended family. He
knew personally all members of the association and everybody saw in him
the great senior, who assisted everybody by word and deed and who proved
to everybody his faithfulness and brotherhood. He spared neither time nor
energy in giving his advice or help, with understanding and goodness, but
also with strictness, when it was necessary. His human sympathy, his kindness
and cordiality, his charisma, his lively interest in the life of everyone
of us, the faithfulness and love which he showed to everyone of us all
his life, created in the Bar Kochba that friendship, that feeling of mutual
connection, which is being kept until today in spite of the ill-fated course
of time.Humble and simple, natural and
genuine, serious and dignified, amusing and charming, so we still today
see him before us. We thank him for his active leadership, for his faithfulness
and his love. We thank the Providence that allotted us the good fortune
of having had Arthur as a friend.

These most
handsome and heartfelt words could only be written by somebody who knew
Arthur very well and who loved him fervently, namely, his little brother
Hugo.

__________________________________________________________________
t.a.:1. Uncle
Hugo mentions several times that in the Bohemian villages lived only one
or two Jewish families. This was because of the Austrian government's regulations
(the Familianten Law). Jews had to obtain special permissions to settle
and to make a living. In order to keep the number of Jews down, only the
eldest son was allowed to marry. These regulations were in force from 1727
until 1859. (Back to article)

__________________________________________________________________[5] Of a speech given at Hugo Bergmann's 60 years
birthday:

Of Leo Herrmann's
speech held in the "Association of Immigrants fromÈSR" in December 1943
at the occasion of the celebration of the 60 years birthday of Hugo Bergmann.

...We have today come together
here, old Zionists and friends from the homeland. In other circles they
approached him as the philosopher, the university man, the first director
of the National library, the first president of the Hebrew university...

What are we
who came together here? We are "HOCZ" (t.a. Hit´achdut Olej Czechoslovakia),
an association of people who followed him into the people and to the land.
Into the people he went in front of us - from Prague towards the East,
to Galizia, in the Russian, in the Jiddish, in the Hebrew and in the Hebrew
literature and world.

And on the
way to the land he was after the war among the first ones who came to the
land, the spiritual leader of the group on the way to Erez Israel...

How was he as guide
for all of us? Not through the pathetic demand of the word, not as the
dramatic orator on the platform, although he is able to speak with a profound
and lasting effect. He was the guide and the teacher. He demanded and urged,
not by a loud call, but by a quiet word and an overwhelming example. In
the Bar Kochba he belonged already to the "Old Gentlemen" of the association,
was librarian on the university, belonged no more to the active student's
association, but to the ranks from where the professors and teachers came.
We knew that he already then could have been an associate professor and
on his way to become a professor, if he had met the demand to shift religion
and conceal his nationality. That he didn't do it was nothing special for
us. We found it natural. But how he also in our circle acted only in the
quiet and went his own way without claiming leadership, exactly that we
didn't understand always and not easily, because we saw him as a leader
in front of us. Perhaps we would have liked to have him different sometimes.
We wished he possessed a greater aggressiveness, a more offensive spirit.
But the leader himself was too strong in his nature to give in to the demands
of the guided.People with whom he had been
together for years have, in his presence, not felt the experience of Zionism.
They stayed indifferent, they needed a push from outside which they got
from strangers. It is just this that always has distinguished Hugo. He
had a respect for different meanings and views, which Zionism actually
doesn't have. He had an extremely great shyness before breaking into the
pattern of life and ideas of the fellow man. He spares the neighbour's
soul and understands it often so well, that he seems to be its prisoner
in his tolerance. We didn't want to understand that he didn't do greater
conquests in his own circle, that he always went out again to learn instead
to teach and to force all people around him into his way and his circle.
He was and is not one of those people who rape and conquer easily. He was
and is one of those who imperceptibly, and little by little, win and educate
and fill one with his own views. In this sense he, however, was not the
guide of single people - even though among the personalities with whom
he made contact belonged such as Albert Einstein - but the guide and teacher
of whole generations, whom he filled with his love and tolerance and his
spirit. He went ahead, he showed how he means it. And he stayed to be like
that. When he via London came to Jerusalem as librarian and the head of
a very small crowd of officers and employees, he didn't give orders how
to arrange and clean a library, he himself lent a hand, dusted the books,
arranged them, established the scientific catalogue and acted so in his
domain again as the teacher who shows the others what to do.

As this he remained
also in the Zionism: one who goes in front, without consideration to whether
the others will follow him or not. Friends and strangers tell about the
courage and the way in which he in the First World War got the distinction
to be promoted extraordinarily to the rank of first lieutenant.

We are not used
to see Hugo Bergmann as a martial mind, but he led his company in attack
and captured with his own hand an enemy machine gun, safely placed on a
difficult accessible hill. The story tells that he hastened ahead, without
looking back, without calling on his company to follow him and that they
followed him because they saw him rushing forwards. This way he led his
company, this way he leads one generation after the other, not only to
attack, but the slow road of laborious removal of existing difficulties
on the way to realization.

In this going
ahead, in this fulfillment of the recognized duty, he became an example
by how he converts problems into the human and not makes people to problems.
You can't evade his manner when you have learned to look through his eyes.
He, the philosopher, who went into the philosophy from mathematics, has
never lost the ability to see people as people, in their narrowness and
vagueness.

He approaches
the problems like people themselves, with love, devotion and unremitting
efforts to understand all aspects and to account for them. Perhaps it is
therefore that those usually called The School of Prague have been enriched
more by him than by any other one in our generation. And perhaps this makes
us especially strong and tough. I believe that nobody who knows Hugo Bergmann
will reproach him of lack of consequence and persistency, endurance and
strength. Few people are more consequent than he, few who are harder and
less indulgent in the demand to themselves and who therefore are far off
every compromise. He makes no compromise with himself. This is well consistent
with that he never rests in self-assurance. He always re-examines and for
him applies what Robert Weltsch - on his 50.birthday - mentioned as the
sign of our understanding of Zionism: cogito ergo sum. My existence is
based on the incessant reasoning over my kind and myself. In this reasoning,
self-testing, in being always on guard towards yourself, herein lies the
justification of a consequent way which doesn't rest on dogmatic self-righteousness.

I am afraid that
I really have lost myself too far into analysis, not because I wanted to
analyse Hugo Bergmann, but because I wanted to show why his leadership
carried us away with him, why his leadership formed us and why we did follow
him.

When I say this,
I don't mean that we have done justice to his leadership. We have all failed.
Nobody has really fulfilled the obligation we feel, in his presence nobody
can beat his breast self-righteously and satisfied. He himself gives us
the example in that he repeatedly, discontented with himself and us, shows
how long and hard is the way that is still before us.

So, it is for us
a great pleasure to be together with him in this circle, that he still
feels to belong to us, if not entirely, then still partially. He belongs
to many circles of the jishuv, spiritually, socially, occupationally and
human. But he belongs also to us, who are a kind of a large family whereof
many have the pleasure to have known him when he was 25 and 40 years younger.
A few of us are especially close to him of one reason. To mention this
pleases us particularly, because we have known his mother and a few also
his father. Because we have heard from these people of his family how he
spent his youth in Chraštice near Príbram and in Zbenice, how he
was brought closer to Jewish life by his uncle Karl and how he started
for the first time in a systematic way to absorb Jewish knowledge from
his chief rabbi Nathan Ehrenfeld, how he met there the Russian Zuckermann
and Aharom, in short because we could walk a longer part and an earlier
part of life together with him than many others, who now thank and congratulate
him publicly and personally. Also we join them and hope that he will be
able to do something very substantial for all of us in the difficult years
that lay before us, before the jishuv and before our people. He is one
of the few who have achieved esteem and respect of all, which is proven
by the love he has spread among us. There will be no movement, however
bold, that will become legitimate without gaining him as a follower. We
will
have to fight big conflicts, not only with the outside world, but also
with ourselves and within ourselves. We need nothing more than men who
have the courage to say the truth, indifferent to whether it is popular
or not.

In this sense Hugo
Bergmann can give us much, not only us, the little circle, but to the whole
jishuv. Many trust him, many believe him, all love him and it is a delight
for us to confess that also we are among them.

Biographies:

Quido (Aharon ben Ozer)
Bergmann -

Quido
was born in Pardubice (Bohemia) August 10, 1889. He served as an
Austrian non-commissioned officer in WW I, was later a wholesale dealer,
and was a member of B'nai B'rith, Odd Fellows and Poale Zion. Quido
and his family lived in Praha. In
October 1941, shortly before the town Terezín was converted to a
ghetto, Quido was deported to Lodz, Poland, where the Germans already had
established a ghetto. In September 1942 Quido was transferred to some concentration
camp to be killed. Besides
being skilful, diligent and a successful businessman, Quido was a devoted
son and a loving, careful and responsible husband and father. Even in the
last hour before his deportation he cared for his children. Quido was a
conscientous and religious Jew and Zionist. He passed on to his children
the beautiful traditions he learned to love in his parental home. He also
had much social understanding for human beings in need.

Hugo was born in Praha (Prague) December 25, 1883. He earned his Ph.D.
at the University of Praha, served as an Austrian officer in WW I, and
later became a professor of philosophy and first rector of the Hebrew University
of Jerusalem. Hugo was a Jewish spiritual
leader in Praha and a Zionist leader in Bohemia before WW I. Hugo visited
Turkish Palestine in 1910. Here Hugo conceived the idea of a library for
the Jews and the potential university. After WW I the World Zionist movement
sent him to London to head the "Culture Department." Hugo persuaded the
movement to grant the necessary funds for the Hebrew National and University
Library, whereupon he and his family moved to Jerusalem in 1920 to establish
the institution. The creation of the library
had quite an impact on both Moslem and Christian organizations, which led
to the popularity Hugo enjoyed in Jerusalem. The University was finally
established in 1927. Hugo directed the library for 15 years, until he was
chosen to be rector of the University. Hugo died in Jerusalem June
18, 1975 and he is buried in the Sanhedrin burial ground. Hugo began collecting information
about the Bergmann family, in 1920 from his uncle, Dr. Adolf Bergmann,
then in 1930 from his mother Johanna. After WWII he passed the material
on to his younger cousin, Dasha Bergmann, who then developed the Bergmann
family tree.

Article from The Jerusalem
Post, Dec. 1973:

Hugo Bergmanhonoured on90th birthday

The doyen of Israeli philosophers,
Prof. Hugo Shmuel Bergman, was last week honoured by friends and colleagues
at the Hebrew University on the occasion of his 90th birthday.

Born in Czechoslovakia and educated
in Prague and Berlin, Prof. Bergman came to this country in 1920
and served as the first rector of the Hebrew University and the first director
of the Jewish National and University Library.

Prof. Bergman was the first
Western Jew in this century to write books of a Jewish, Zionist and philosophical
character in Hebrew. He encouraged the publication in Hebrew of philosophical
works in the original and in translation. In this process he played
an important part in creating a Hebrew terminology for modern philosophical
concepts.